Fifteen years ago, when Ignacy Trzewiczek created a board game set in a post-apocalyptic world and dubbed it “51st State,” he never imagined he would one day hear a world leader publicly using the term.

And while U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision of Canada becoming the 51st state was bandied about in a “very different context” from the setting presented in the Polish game designer’s science fiction world, talk of annexation struck a chord with him.